Any body know anything about the so-called vegitable irory?

I think you're talking about tagua nuts. I have heard three different pronunciations of the nut:

- tah'-gwah
- tah'-wuh
- tah'-qua

Take your pick. I've seen it spelled "tagua" and "tauga".

The tagua is a palm-like tree (Phytelephas macrocarpa) which grows in tropical regions of South America. They produce seeds called tagua nuts. The dried tagua nut is close grained and very hard, with a cellular grain similar to elephant ivory, but it has a higher density. There is often a void at the center of the nut.

It grows in Southern Panama, Colombia, Equador, and Peru, and goes by several different names, including:
- vegetable ivory
- tagua nut
- binroji nut
- corozo or corrozzo nut

You can cut, grind, drill, sand, stain, and scrimshaw them. They are pretty tough little buggers. From the 1800's up through World War II they were used to make fine buttons for clothing.

I have used them for scrimshaw practice pieces, but have found that they have limited value in the world of knifemaking because of their size. The only applications I have found where I think they would do well is on the handles of miniatures, and as spacers on stick-tang knife handles.

I made a dagger last year using vegetable ivory nuts, and I was very pleased with the end result. I sold the knife at the blade show to a customer, this year he came to me and told me that the nuts had shrunk a bit and had come loose. To remedy the problem all he had to do was tighten the butt cap a bit. The main problem was they came from a fairly humid climate and the customer lives in a very dry climate. I do not like the idea of them shrinking so I doubt if I will ever use them on a handle again.

Thanks, I was thinking of useing them on some hidden tang knives and was wondering about there durability.

I was tempted like you to use tagua nuts in my handles and believe I did use them for spacers on one or two. Being a natural material you can run into the same shrinkage and cracking problems that you do with wood if they aren't fully dried. I was always a little leary of the fact that the void in the center of them is shaped such as to lend itself to cracking through to the outside. Also you'll find that they scorch very easily. If you decide to use them make sure that your belts are sharp and that you take your time when sanding them.

If it tells you anything, I still have several sacks of them unopened lying in the corner of my shop collecting dust. Let me know if you want to try them and I'll send you a few to play with.

Gary
gary@fallcreek.net (http://gary@fallcreek.net)

Didn't know Tagua had nuts ;-)

Sorry just too perfect a setup :)

Excuse the last, seems I had a weird day, no clue as to why I posted 4-5 weird messages. :( Sorry of I offended anyone.

no offence taken, I just got in and am going on 26 hours without sleep. everythings wierd to me right now! |I

Exactly how hard are they when dried? Do you need to stablize? I admit they do look nice/interesting. Are they edible? Toxic? Maybe you can eat them Gary ;-) if they are not toxic

Welllll...they are very hard and very tough to do anything with, but I left a pollished one outside for about a week and the side faceing up cracked horibly.

I don't think I'll be useing them for knife material.

If you do try to cut through them at high speed, be sure to be in a well ventilated place.
THEY STINK!
Trust me on that one. :)